Exodus 12 also tells us that they ate the lamb with their loins girded, with their shoes on their feet, and with their staff in their hand (v. 11). The children did not eat the lamb in a sloppy or a slow way. They ate the lamb in haste. I believe that all of them stood while they ate. Their loins were girded, their shoes were on their feet, and they had a staff in their hand. Suppose they had the blood covering them without the meat for them to eat. God may have given them the commandment to gird their loins, put their shoes on their feet, take their staff, and be in haste to get out of Egypt. If this had been the case, they would have still been hungry. Although they would have had the blood covering them, they would have still been empty within. Without eating, they would not have had the energy to leave Egypt in haste. This picture shows us that the eating of the lamb was for moving. Life is for us to move. They were eating the lamb in a moving way. While they were eating, they were getting ready to get out of Egypt. When we take our meals, we usually sit down and relax. But during the Passover, the children of Israel ate in haste because eating was for them to move. This is a new beginning, not of creation but the beginning of redemption for life.
The record of the history of God’s people refers again and again to the matter of eating. After the children of Israel came out of Egypt, the matter of eating was of central importance in the wilderness. They began to eat manna.
The word manna in Hebrew means “What is it?” or “What is this?” On the morning when the children of Israel first saw this small, round, white thing on the ground, they did not know what it was. Thus, they asked one another, “What is this?” “What is this?” is the meaning of the word manna. We may know what corn and wheat are, but what is this? To the people of the world Christ is manna, that is, He is “what is this?” The professors may know physics, mathematics, history, and geography but when it comes to Christ they would ask, “What is this?” Christ is the real manna, the real “what is this?” Christ is the heavenly food on this earth. On this earth there is nothing like manna. Manna, the heavenly Christ as our heavenly food, is a mystery.
The manna had the taste of honey and of fresh oil (Exo. 16:31; Num. 11:8-9). When we eat the manna, we enjoy the honey and the oil. Oil in the Bible signifies the Spirit. In this manna is the taste of the Spirit and the taste of honey. Honey is the mingling of two lives, the animal life and the vegetable life. The honey bees which produce honey receive the supply from flowers, from the vegetable life. As our manna, Christ has this element of the mingling of the animal life, the redeeming life, with the vegetable life, the generating life. This mingling is our sweet nourishment.
Exodus also tells us that the manna was small and round (16:14). Darby‘s translation uses the word “fine” for small and the word “granular” for round. The fineness or smallness of manna means that it was ready and available to be taken in by God’s people. The food taken in by us must be small enough to eat. Anything that is fine, such as fine flour, fine sugar, or fine salt, is ready and available for us to use. The roundness of manna signifies that Christ is eternal, perfect, and full, without beginning or ending. Christ is eternal food with an eternal nature for eternal nourishment without limitation. This eternal food without beginning and without ending is the eternal life.
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